The ruling Wednesday by a federal judge in Connecticut that a university's competitive cheerleading program cannot be counted as a varsity sport to meet gender-equity requirements could threaten the team at the University of Oregon.

U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill decided in a case involving Quinnipiac University of Hamden, Conn., that the activity in which teams perform acrobatic stunts for judges is "too underdeveloped and disorganized" to be included alongside basketball, soccer and other recognized women's college sports.

The ruling could set a precedent for challenges to competitive cheer at places such as Oregon, which had its first year of competition in 2009-10, legal experts say. But Renee Baumgartner, Oregon executive senior associate athletic director, said the decision would not alter the Ducks' commitment to the team.

Competitive cheer and Title IX

The law: Title IX is a 38-year-old federal law that bans sex discrimination in schools. It requires school to offer women equal opportunities, including sports.

Compliance: There are three ways a school can comply with Title IX:

(1) Ensuring that the percentages of male and female athletes are proportionate to the percentage of male and female students enrolled.

(2) Having a history and continuing practice of expanding opportunities for the less represented sex.

(3) “Fully and effectively” accommodating the interests andabilities of the less represented sex.

Title IX at Oregon: Historially, Oregon has chosen the second approach, continuing to add women’s teams. Since 1996, the Ducks have added women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse and competitive cheer.

Competitive cheer: Unlikesoccer and lacrosse, competitive cheer is not a sport sanctioned by the NCAA. That does not necessarily mean it wouldn’t count as a sport for the purposes of gender equity. But it puts the onus on Oregon to prove competitive cheer is a sport if someone challenges it.

"It does not directly impact the University of Oregon," Baumgartner said. "This court case does not apply to us."

The Ducks call their cheer team "stunts and gymnastics," to distinguish it from the squads that rouse and entertain fans on the sideline at football or basketball games. Oregon coach Felecia Mulkey has led in organizing the National Competitive Stunts & Tumbling Association, a six-school organization that aims to act as the governing body and coaches' association for the activity, which is not sanctioned by the NCAA.

Currently, four Division-I schools nationwide treat competitive cheer as a varsity sport: Oregon, Baylor, Maryland and Quinnipiac. All are members of the fledgling NCSTA.

Recent efforts to define competitive cheer as a sport have been met with skepticism in part because some see it as a less expensive way to comply with Title IX than more established sports such as crew or gymnastics. Proponents say they're merely responding to a demand from the thousands of girls teenage and younger who have contributed to competitive cheer's explosive growth in recent years.

Members of the Quinnipiac volleyball team sued after the school announced last year that it would eliminate the team for budgetary reasons. Quinnipiac replaced it with a competitive cheer squad in an effort to comply with Title IX, the 1972 federal law that requires equal opportunities for men and women at institutions that receive public funds.

The school has 60 days to come up with a plan to keep the volleyball team and follow gender-equity rules.

Quinnipiac spokeswoman Lynn Bushnell responded to the ruling in a statement saying the school would start a women's rugby team and "continue to press for competitive cheer to become an officially recognized varsity sport in the future."

Oregon officials took heart that in his summary, Judge Underhill wrote: "...once competitive cheer is better organized and defined, and surely in the event that the NCAA recognizes the activity as an emerging sport... competitive cheer will be acknowledged as a bona fide sporting activity by academic institutions, the public and the law."

Yet the ruling seemed to agitate the fight nationally about competitive cheer, which detractors decry as an outgrowth of an ancillary activity that emphasizes skirts over skill.

The AAUW, a 100,000-member organization formerly known as the American Association of University Women, issued a statement supporting the judge's ruling. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, which assisted the volleyball players in bringing the lawsuit, said in a statement that the decision "directs Quinnipiac University to stop playing games with the important principle of equal opportunity for women."

The federal Office for Civil Rights, which oversees enforcement of Title IX, has never issued a blanket ruling on competitive cheerleading. Instead, it responds to individual complaints, evaluating the activity's structure, administration, team preparation and competition, and other factors before determining whether it can be counted as a sport under Title IX, OCR spokesman David Thomas said.

As a result, the Quinnipiac ruling does not directly affect Oregon but does set a precedent that could make it easier to successfully sue the school over competitive cheer's status as a varsity sport, said Stanford law professor Deborah Rhode, an expert on gender and the law.

It also could embolden someone to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, triggering an investigation. If the OCR ruled Oregon's stunts and gymnastics team isn't a sport and that the Ducks consequently were violating Title IX by counting it, UO could be forced to replace the squad with another women's sport or add another women's team.

Baumgartner said the Ducks are undaunted by critics or court rulings.

"These women are doing roundoff back handsprings, back tucks," she said. "They're very athletic."

Baumgartner noted that next April, Oregon's under-construction Matthew Knight Arena will host the fledgling NCSTA's national championship -- its first ever.